IIM, Bengaluru and IIFT, Delhi to represent India in the APAC regional round of Research Challenge

Contributed by: Priyank Singhvi, CFA

On January 31^st the national finals of India Research Challenge 2013-14 were held at Mumbai.

To nurture the next generation of investment professionals and instill the importance of ethics and professional standards, the global membership organization CFA Institute and its member societies host an annual competition for university students called “CFA Institute Research Challenge.”  The India round of the CFA Institute Research Challenge is organized by the Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP) and also involved corporate sponsors – Bloomberg, NSE and Research Foundation of CFA Institute.

CFA Institute Research Challenge tests the analytic, valuation, report writing, and presentation skills of university students. Students have the unique opportunity to develop and present an equity research report and be mentored and judged by leading industry experts. Local competitions involved teams of three to five business and finance students from participating universities who worked directly with a local company in researching and preparing a company analysis under the guidance of senior industry participants and CFA charterholders as mentors.

This annual competition was introduced globally in 2006 and is considered, “the Investment Olympics” for university students. In six years, around 10,000 students have participated. Teams are mentored by industry professionals and their university faculty members in conducting equity analysis, writing research report, and presenting their recommendations. In addition, all participants are briefed with the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. More on Research Challenge can be found here: http://www.iaipirc.org/irc  and  www.cfainstitute.org/community/challenge/Pages/index.aspx  .

This year the six month long India leg of the event saw participation of around 200 students from 42 business schools. The event was supported by 17 judges, 21 graders and 44 mentors. IIM, Bengaluru and IIFT, Delhi were the national winners. The teams that won the zonal rounds and contested in the national finals were:

Acknowledgements:

To learn more about the CFA Institute Research Challenge in India, follow us on the website www.iaipirc.org; Twitter @iaipchallenge; Facebook/iaipirc.

– P S